Review: FINE FARE

So I am a sometimes picky eater. I am a "foodie." I like to have the freshest produce when I cook, and I need the best cuts of free range organic meat if I am going to bother putting dead animals in my mouth due to guilt caused by my semi-vegetarian past. So that being said...

Welcome to your neighborhood grocer! The Fine Fare; located on Broadway just north of Dyckman. The Fine Fare is open 24 hours a day which makes it the only place really to grab a bite to eat in the hood after hours- ( though there is a 24 hour buffet on the corner of Broadway and Dykman--but i have not yet eaten there- food that sits that long makes me nervous....)

So Fine Fare! As you can tell, this is a unique store. It has a rather cheeky decor, and I hope to one day own my very own gigantic chicken to place on my roof.
So you walk in and in front of you is a small case of 'freshly made sushi.' I have eaten this, and it is exactly what you expect the only sushi north of 181st street to be... The rice is dry and I worry about getting sick from eating it, but only because to me dry rice means that the sushi has had time to get a bit of air on it which is not good for raw fish.
Raw food originated because the upper classes could afford the best cuts of meat and when meat is served extremely fresh in a raw state it is quite delicious and safe to eat. However, if sushi containing raw meat has sat out to the point of the rice feeling a bit dehydrated, I am sure that within that time it could have come to contain some not so happy bits of bacteria and such. BUT-- so far so good! No puking- and I am happy to say that I do still once and a while have sushi from Fine Fare at 10 pm ( it gets a bit dry after midnight.)

But lets break it down- Important things about the Fine Fare;
-Cheap Roast chickens pre-packaged and pre-cooked; 6 bucks.
-An okay deli with a nice side case of luxury items. I.E. Cheeses and meats and Pate, oh my!
-Pretty good selection of tropical fruits
-Fish and lobster in the back
-nice selection of veggies, but the quality isn't consistent.
-Sushi case
-Everyone is Bilingual, but all to very different extents and abilities.
-good selection of ice cream :)
-A poor selection of organic foods.

So those are things I think are important in the store. If you have questions about other things that you think are important- please comment on this blog and I will edit and add in the answer to your query.

Now for the not so happy portion of this blog...
When you are feeding your community it is your job to make sure that you are giving them food which is safe to eat.
On several really upsetting occasions I have felt as though the Fine Fare does not have it's customers best interest at heart.
The first incident- I was making pasta for some friends for a small dinner we were having, and I went out and purchased some Pasta sauce (aisle 1). When I got home, I opened it and the inside of the lid was COVERED in mold as was the surface of the sauce. I was mortified. I went back immediately with my receipt and walked up to the first employee I could find and popped the top open for them. Thankfully they empathized with me and told me to just go on back and get a new one and i didn't have to ring it up again or anything- just grab a new one and be on my merry way. The next jar was just fine. Phew.
The second incident..
I like Popsicles. A LOT. So, a friend and I went to get some "FEAR FACTOR PUSH UP POPS." Long story short; Melted icky old disgusting. While they were fear factor pops.. they were a little more frightening than I think they were intended to be. I called the customer service number and received in the mail a coupon for 6 dollars worth of any ice cream product from their company.
Well, I went back and picked out my ice cream, and then I also got another item bringing my total to; one free ice cream product, and some other products worth 6 dollars and 45 cents.
This is where language barriers suck. I tried to explain my coupon for free ice cream and the woman at the register just did NOT understand what I was trying to say, and I was really nice about the whole thing. So, at the end of all this, calamity and a few people helping both of us out--they only charged me 45 cents for everything. I tried to give her money in the correct amount for what i owed, but she wouldn't let me, and I basically walked out of the store with 6 dollars worth of free food, and one free ice cream product. What you can take away from this story-- is that the people at Fine Fare really are nice people and want to help you, sometimes it just doesn't turn out exactly how you expected though.
And the third and final,, sort of an incident---
Like I said- meat makes me sad. I like to eat chicken every now and again, but Fine Fare simply does not have good cuts of chicken. They look gross, and it is hard to find a cutlet that is not hiding a bone in it. Sometimes they don't even have boneless cutlets and so you have to resort to getting a breast with the rib plate in it. So, I usually just don't eat their chicken. The beef looks alright. But like i said-- the store is never stocked consistently so don't fall in love with anything for too long.
Now checking out can be a process- the lines can be long sometimes. But usually I can get in and out of the store in less than half an hour.

Ahem.. so anyway.
So yea..
"Fine Fare-- it isn't Whole Foods."

Icky lighting. Inconsistent stocking. A few luxury products.
Oh-- and they have some nice wine and beer.

Worth the INK- just cause you need to know what's up.
6 out of 10.
But it IS the best grocery store in the area.

This... is the other option...the "SELECTO SUPERMARKET" on Sherman...

*shudder*